Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 10, 2025
Author Spotlight: Advancing Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery in Children Through Novel Biomarkers and Enhanced Localization
Published on: September 20, 2024
[Announcement of a serious illness to a child]
François Doz1,2, Maria Rodriguez Cortina1,3, Étienne Seigneur1,3
1Centre SIREDO (Soins innovation recherche en oncologie de l'enfant, l'adolescent, et l'adulte jeune), institut Curie, Paris, France.
Insights
Seriously ill children require direct, age-appropriate communication about their diagnosis. This disclosure process involves stages, respecting individual child and parent needs, guided by principles of honesty and trust.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Medicine
- Child Psychology
- Medical Ethics
Background:
- Communicating serious illness to children presents unique challenges.
- Balancing timely treatment with sensitive disclosure is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To outline principles for informing critically ill children about their diagnosis.
- To emphasize a staged, individualized approach to disclosure.
Main Methods:
- This study is a conceptual analysis based on established ethical and psychological principles.
- It synthesizes best practices for pediatric serious illness communication.
Main Results:
- Direct communication with critically ill children is recommended.
- Disclosure should be tailored to the child's age, family context, and relationship with parents.
- The process is iterative, respecting varying paces of understanding for the child and parents.
Conclusions:
- The announcement of a serious pediatric illness requires a sensitive, staged approach.
- Communication must be honest and avoid betrayal, prioritizing the child's well-being.
- This method supports the child and family through the diagnostic process.
Abstract:
Announcement of a serious illness to a child. Critically ill children should be directly informed about their illness, in a way that is appropriate to their age, family context and alliance with themselves and their parents. The process of the announcement of the diagnosis does not correspond to an isolated moment but must be conceived in successive stages, respecting a different rhythm of progression in the child and in each of his parents, even if sometimes the clinical circumstances require the initiation of treatment fairly quickly. The synthetic principle of informing "without violence or betrayal" guides the conditions for the announcement of the diagnosis of pediatric serious illness, both to parents and to the sick child.
Related Concept Videos
01:17Classification of Illness
An illness is a response to a disease in which the person's level of functioning is changed compared with a previous level. The general classification of illness includes acute and chronic.
Acute illness is severe...
01:14SBAR II: Application of SBAR
SBAR Report from a Nurse to a Health Care Provider
S: "Hello, Dr. Smith. This is Jane, RN, from the Med Surg unit. I am calling to tell you about Ms. White in Room 210, who is experiencing increased pain and redness at her incision site. Her recent...
01:18Factors Affecting Illness
For instance, risk factors are connected to illness,...
01:27Nursing Ethical Principles II
Consider the following scenario, which illustrates how these principles are applied in the care of Mr. John, a fifty-year-old teacher diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer.
Initially, Mr. John's...
01:03Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV) and Cancer
RSV is a retrovirus that contains two copies of a plus-strand RNA genome. Its genome consists of four main open...
01:26Pneumothorax-I
Pneumothorax can be even further classified as spontaneous, traumatic, and tension pneumothorax.